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Minnie Bruce Pratt

{{short description|American educator, activist and essayist (1946–2023)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2021}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Minnie Bruce Pratt

| image = MinnieBrucePratt.jpg

| image_size =

| alt = A smiling white woman with blond curly hair, photographed outdoors

| caption = Minnie Bruce Pratt, from a 1986 publication

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1946|09|12}}

| birth_place = Selma, Alabama

| death_date = {{death date and age|2023|07|02|1946|09|12}}

| death_place = Syracuse, New York

| occupation = Professor of Writing and Women's Studies

| employer = Syracuse University

| alma_mater = University of Alabama (BA)
University of North Carolina (PhD)

| period =

| genre =

| subject = Race, class, gender and sexual theory

| movement =

| notableworks =

| spouses = {{unbulleted list

| {{marriage|Marvin E. Weaver II|1966|1975|end=divorced}}{{cite web |last1=Anderson |first1=Kelly |title=Voices of Feminism Oral History Project: Minnie Bruce Pratt |url=https://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/vof/transcripts/Pratt.pdf |website=Smith College Libraries |publisher=Smith College |access-date=5 July 2023 |page=24 |date=17 March 2005}}

| {{marriage|Leslie Feinberg|2011|2014|end=died}} }}

| partners = {{unbulleted list

| Joan E. Biren (1981–1992){{cite web |last1=Anderson |first1=Kelly |title=Voices of Feminism Oral History Project: Joan E. Biren |url=https://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/vof/transcripts/Biren.pdf |website=Smith College Libraries |publisher=Smith College |access-date=5 July 2023 |page=85 |date=28 February 2004}}

| Leslie Feinberg (1992–2011){{cite web |last1=Pratt |first1=Minnie Bruce |title=Leslie Feinberg |url=https://minniebrucepratt.net/leslie-feinberg/ |website=MinnieBrucePratt.net |publisher=Minnie Bruce Pratt |access-date=5 July 2023}}

}}

| children = 2{{cite web|url=http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/prattminniebruce/|title=Guide to the Minnie Bruce Pratt Papers, 1870s-2005, bulk 1975-2005|work=David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library}}{{cite web|url=http://www.lambdaliterary.org/reviews/04/17/crime-against-nature-by-minnie-bruce-pratt/|title='Crime Against Nature' by Minnie Bruce Pratt|work=Lambda Literary|date=April 18, 2013}}

| years_active = 1975–2023

| module =

| website = {{URL|mbpratt.org}}

}}

Minnie Bruce Pratt (September 12, 1946 – July 2, 2023) was an American poet, educator, activist, and essayist. She retired in 2015 from her position as Professor of Writing and Women's Studies at Syracuse University where she was invited to help develop the university's first LGBT studies program.{{Cite news|title=University Honors Poet-Activist Minnie Bruce Pratt Feb. 26|url=https://news.syr.edu/blog/2015/02/25/university-honors-poet-activist-minnie-bruce-pratt-feb-26-83763/|access-date=February 28, 2021|website=SU News|date=February 25, 2015 |language=en-US}}

Early life and education

Pratt was born in Selma, Alabama, on September 12, 1946, and grew up in Centreville, Alabama. Her parents were Virginia Brown Pratt, a social worker, and William Luther Pratt Jr., a clerk.{{cite web|first1=Kim |last1=Whitehead |url=https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/minnie-bruce-pratt/ |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |title=Minnie Bruce Pratt |date= October 19, 2011 }} She graduated with a BA from the University of Alabama (1968) and earned a PhD in English literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1979).{{cite web|title=Historical Note|url=http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/prattminniebruce/|work=Guide to the Minnie Bruce Pratt Papers|accessdate=May 23, 2014|year=2008}}

Professional career

{{expand section | work and accomplishments at Syracuse U |date=July 2023}}

In 1977, Pratt helped to found WomanWrites, a Southeastern lesbian writers conference. While attending the University of North Carolina in 1978, she joined Feminary, a southern feminist writing collective based in Chapel Hill and Durham, North Carolina.

In 1984, she co-founded LIPS, a Washington, DC, lesbian affinity group.{{cite web |title=Minnie Bruce Pratt papers, 1870s-2005, bulk 1975-2005 |url=https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/prattminniebruce |website=Duke University Libraries |publisher=Duke University |access-date=6 July 2023}} As the group's last public action, they participated in civil disobedience at the 1987 protest of the Bowers v. Hardwick sodomy law decision made by the US Supreme Court, becoming the first group to be arrested at this protest.{{cite web |last1=Anderson |first1=Kelly |title=Voices of Feminism Oral History Project: Minnie Bruce Pratt |url=https://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/vof/transcripts/Pratt.pdf |website=Smith College Libraries |publisher=Smith College |access-date=5 July 2023 |pages=2, 62–65 |date=17 March 2005}} Her political affiliations included the International Action Center, the National Women's Fightback Network, and the National Writers Union; she also served as managing editor of the Workers World Party newspaper.{{Cite web |title=Articles by Minnie Bruce Pratt for Workers World |url=https://www.workers.org/?s=minnie+bruce |website=Workers World }}{{Cite web |title=About Minnie Bruce Pratt |url=https://minniebrucepratt.net/about/ |website=minniebrucepratt.net}}

Pratt wrote the 1990 book Crimes Against Nature, in which she described losing custody of her children because of her lesbianism.{{cite news |title=Transgender Pioneer and Stone Butch Blues Author Leslie Feinberg Has Died |quote=Feinberg's spouse, Minnie Bruce Pratt, an activist and poet, is the author of Crime Against Nature, about loss of custody of her sons as a lesbian mother. |newspaper=The Advocate |date=November 17, 2014 |url=http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/books/2014/11/17/transgender-pioneer-leslie-feinberg-stone-butch-blues-has-died |accessdate=November 18, 2014 }} In 1991, the book won the Stonewall Book Award for Literature.{{Cite web |title=Stonewall Book Awards List {{!}} Rainbow Roundtable |url=https://www.ala.org/rrt/award/stonewall/honored#1991 |access-date=2024-10-25 |website=www.ala.org |language=en}}

Pratt wrote extensively on race, class, gender, and sexual theory. Along with lesbian writers Chrystos and Audre Lorde, she received a 1991 Hellman/Hammett award from the Fund for Free Expression to writers "who have been victimized by political persecution".{{cite web |last=Rapp |first=Linda |title=Pratt, Minnie Bruce |url=http://www.glbtq.com/literature/pratt_mb.html |work=glbtq.com |year=2004 |accessdate=July 25, 2007 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814120111/http://www.glbtq.com/literature/pratt_mb.html |archivedate=August 14, 2007 }}

Pratt appeared in Rosa von Praunheim's 1996 film, The Transexual Menace.{{IMDb title |id=0326372 |title=The Transexual Menace }}. Retrieved February 12, 2021.{{better source needed|date=July 2023}}

Pratt served on the faculty of the distance education school Union Institute & University.{{Cite web |url=http://www.mbpratt.org/unionint.html |title=Minnie Bruce Pratt – Poet Activist LGBTQ+ Anti-Racist Anti-Imperialist |website=mbpratt.org }}{{better source needed|date=July 2023}}

Pratt joined Syracuse University in 2005.{{cite news |last1=Korey |first1=Eileen |title=In Memoriam: Minnie Bruce Pratt |url=https://news.syr.edu/blog/2023/07/26/in-memoriam-minnie-bruce-pratt/ |access-date=21 August 2023 |work=Syracuse University News |date=26 July 2023}}

She has published several poetry collections, including S/HE (1995), a meditation on gender fluidity and identity, and Inside the Money Machine (2011), which critiques capitalism and economic oppression. Her poetry often blends lyrical beauty with political urgency, making her a voice in contemporary feminist and LGBTQ+ literature.{{Cite web |last=Heying |first=Sarah |date=2021-03-15 |title=Labors of Love and Loss: An Interview with Minnie Bruce Pratt on the Occasion of "Magnified," Her Latest Poetry Collection |url=https://www.autostraddle.com/labors-of-love-and-loss-an-interview-with-minnie-bruce-pratt-on-the-occasion-of-magnified-her-latest-poetry-collection/ |access-date=2025-03-28 |website=Autostraddle |language=en-US}}

In 2022, Pratt released Magnified, a poetry collection born out of the loss of her longtime partner, Leslie Feinberg, a trans lesbian activist and communist revolutionary. {{Cite web |last=Korey |first=Eileen |date=2023-07-26 |title=In Memoriam: Minnie Bruce Pratt |url=https://news.syr.edu/blog/2023/07/26/in-memoriam-minnie-bruce-pratt/ |access-date=2025-03-28 |website=SU News |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=KaeLyn |date=2014-11-17 |title=Leslie Feinberg, Transgender Lesbian, Activist, Author, and Revolutionary Dies at 65 |url=https://www.autostraddle.com/leslie-feinberg-transgender-lesbian-activist-author-and-revolutionary-dies-at-65-264663/ |access-date=2025-03-28 |website=Autostraddle |language=en-US}}

Personal life

Pratt divided her time between Syracuse, New York and Centreville, Alabama. She was the widow of author-activist Leslie Feinberg, who died in November 2014 at age 65.{{Cite news |url=http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=11469 |title=Annual Philip J. Traci Memorial Reading Feb. 6 |date=February 3, 2005 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929221002/http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=11469 |archivedate=September 29, 2011 }}{{Cite news |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2003/12/16/2003079834/2 |work=Taipei Times |date=December 16, 2003 |title=A transgender warrior spreads the word to Taiwan |first=Bradley |last=Winterton }} Feinberg and Pratt married in New York and Massachusetts in 2011.{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/17/leslie-feinberg-author-transgender-campaigner-dies-65 |title=Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues author and transgender campaigner, dies at 65 |first=Martin |last=Pengelly |work=The Guardian |date=November 17, 2014 }}{{cite web |title=Transgender Pioneer and Stone Butch Blues author Leslie Feinberg Has Died |website=Common Dreams |date=2014-11-17 |url=https://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/11/17/transgender-pioneer-and-stone-butch-blues-author-leslie-feinberg-has-died |access-date=2023-06-28}}

Pratt had two sons, Ben and Ransom Weaver, by a previous marriage to poet Marvin E. Weaver II, which started while she attended college. In 1975, Pratt and her husband divorced in Fayetteville, North Carolina. She lost custody of her children because the state criminalized homosexual activity at the time.

Pratt's children, Ben and Ransom Weaver, announced in June 2023 that Pratt had been diagnosed with a "severe health problem" and was receiving palliative care. She died in Syracuse, New York, on July 2, 2023, aged 76. Her New York Times obituary specified that she had suffered from glioblastoma.{{cite news |last1=Green |first1=Penelope |title=Minnie Bruce Pratt, Celebrated Poet of Lesbian Life, Dies at 76 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/books/minnie-bruce-pratt-dead.html |access-date=20 August 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=13 July 2023}}[https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/07/08/minnie-bruce-pratt-poet-dies/ Obituary], WashingtonPost.com. July 8, 2023. Accessed July 31, 2023.{{cite news |last1=Hall |first1=Mary Helene |title=Minnie Bruce Pratt, Alabama native who pushed for LGBTQ equality, dies at 76 |url=https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/minnie-bruce-pratt-alabama-native-who-pushed-for-lgbtq-equality-dies-at-76.html |access-date=5 July 2023 |work=AL.com |date=3 July 2023 }}{{cite news |url=https://www.advocate.com/obituaries/minnie-bruce-pratt-obituary |title=Minnie Bruce Pratt, Poet, Essayist, and Activist, Dead at 76 |first=Trudy |last=Ring |work=The Advocate |date=July 4, 2023 |access-date=July 6, 2023 }}

Published works

  • {{cite book |title=The Sound of One Fork |location=Durham, North Carolina |publisher=Night Heron Press |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-940354-00-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ir05AAAACAAJ }}
  • {{cite book |title=Yours In Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism |author1=Elly Bulkin |author-link=Elly Bulkin |author2=Barbara Smith |author2-link=Barbara Smith |location=New York |publisher=Long Haul Press |year=1984 |isbn=0-932379-53-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/yoursinstrugglet00bulk }} Chosen for the 100 Best Lesbian and Gay Nonfiction Books, by the Publishing Triangle, 2004.
  • {{cite book|last=Biren|first=Joan E.|title=Making a way : lesbians out front / photographs by JEB (Joan E. Biren) ; foreword by Minnie Bruce Pratt.|year=1987|publisher=Glad Hag Books ; San Francisco, California : Distributed by Spinsters/Aunt Lute|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=0960317619|pages=112|author2=Minnie Bruce Pratt}}
  • {{cite book |title=Crime Against Nature |location=Ithaca, New York. |publisher=Firebrand Books |year=1990 |isbn=0-932379-73-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/crimeagainstnatu00prat }} American Library Association Gay and Lesbian Book Award in Literature 1991, The Lamont Poetry Selection of The Academy of American Poets, 1989.
  • {{cite book |title=Rebellion: Essays 1980-1991 |location=Ithaca, New York. |publisher=Firebrand Books |year=1991 |isbn=1-56341-006-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/rebellionessays100prat }}
  • {{cite book |title=We Say We Love Each Other |location=San Francisco |publisher=Spinster's ink books/Aunt Lute Books|year=1985 |isbn=1-56341-023-0}}
  • {{cite book |title=S/HE |location=Ithaca, New York |publisher=Firebrand Books |year=1995 |isbn=1-55583-888-X}}
  • {{cite book |title=Walking Back Up Depot Street: Poems |location=Pittsburgh |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-8229-4096-5}} Best Gay and Lesbian Book of the Year by ForeWord: Magazine of Independent Bookstores and Booksellers, 2000.
  • {{cite book |title=The Money Machine: Selected Poems |location=New York |publisher=Belladonna* Books |year=2003 |asin= B0006S92LE }}
  • {{cite book |title=The Dirt She Ate: Selected and New Poems |location=Pittsburgh |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |year=2003 |isbn=0-8229-5826-0}} Chosen Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry, 2003.{{cite web |last1=Cerna |first1=Antonio Gonzalez |title=16th Annual Lambda Literary Awards |url=https://lambdaliterary.org/2004/07/lambda-literary-awards-2003/ |website=Lambda Literary |access-date=8 July 2023 |language=en |date=10 July 2004}}
  • {{cite book |title=Inside the Money Machine |publisher=Carolina Wren Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-932112-60-6}}
  • {{cite book |title=Magnified |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-819580-06-1}}

Honors and awards

  • 1989 - Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets for Crime Against Nature{{Cite web|date=2013-04-18|title='Crime Against Nature' by Minnie Bruce Pratt|url=https://lambdaliterary.mystagingwebsite.com/2013/04/crime-against-nature-by-minnie-bruce-pratt/|access-date=2021-08-27|website=Lambda Literary|language=en}}
  • 1990 - Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry, from the National Endowment for the Arts{{Cite web|last=Poets|first=Academy of American|title=About Minnie Bruce Pratt {{!}} Academy of American Poets|url=https://poets.org/poet/minnie-bruce-pratt|access-date=2021-08-27|website=poets.org}}

  • 1991 - American Library Association Gay and Lesbian Book Award in Literature for Crime Against Nature{{Cite web|title=Crime against Nature {{!}} Awards & Grants|url=https://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/content/crime-against-nature|access-date=2021-08-27|website=www.ala.org}}

  • 2002 - Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, "Picking Up a Job Application"{{Cite web|title=Award Winners|url=https://poetrysociety.org/award-winners/name/individual-awards|access-date=2021-08-27|website=Poetry Society of America|language=en}}
  • 2003 - Lambda Literary Award for The Dirt She Ate{{Cite web|date=2004-07-10|title=16th Annual Lambda Literary Awards|url=https://lambdaliterary.mystagingwebsite.com/2004/07/lambda-literary-awards-2003/|access-date=2021-08-27|website=Lambda Literary|language=en}}
  • 2005 - Fellowship in Poetry, New Jersey State Council on the Arts
  • 2011 - Publishing Triangle's Audre Lorde Award for lesbian poetry for Inside the Money Machine{{Cite web|title=Minnie Bruce Pratt: The Poet as Working-Class Hero - Ms. Magazine|url=https://msmagazine.com/2012/05/25/minnie-bruce-pratt-the-poet-as-working-class-hero/|access-date=2021-08-27|website=msmagazine.com|date=May 25, 2012 }}

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooksby=yes|viaf=67803341}}

  • [http://www.mbpratt.org Official site]
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20141129020120/http://asfaculty.syr.edu/pages/wgs/PRATT-MINNIE.html Page at Syracuse University]
  • Pratt, Minnie Bruce. [http://southernspaces.org/2004/when-i-say-steal-who-do-you-think "When I Say 'Steal,' Who Do You Think Of?"], Southern Spaces, July 21, 2004.
  • Pratt, Minnie Bruce. [http://southernspaces.org/2004/no-place "No Place."] Southern Spaces, July 27, 2004.
  • [http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/prattminniebruce/ Guide to the Minnie Bruce Pratt Papers at Duke University]
  • {{imdb name|4835510}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pratt, Minnie Bruce}}

Category:1946 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:American essayists

Category:Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry winners

Category:Stonewall Book Award winners

Category:American lesbian writers

Category:Activists from Selma, Alabama

Category:Syracuse University faculty

Category:University of Alabama alumni

Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni

Category:American LGBTQ poets

Category:Writers from Syracuse, New York

Category:American communists

Category:Communist women writers

Category:American women poets

Category:American women essayists

Category:LGBTQ people from Alabama

Category:American LGBTQ academics

Category:American women academics

Category:American anti-racism activists

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:Deaths from brain cancer in New York (state)